addiction

Recovery from severe drug addiction often requires a lot of time, a lot of effort and separation from drug using friends. Sometimes prison is the only place that offers those three things. Meg Luther Lindholm has more in this Journeys Through Justice report.

A conversation about Addiction and Incarceration with North Dakota Senator Judy Lee and Representative Kathy Hogan.

Figuring out how to reduce overcrowding in the state’s prisons is high on the agenda for many state legislators. Meg Luther Lindholm recently discussed the twin problems of drug addiction and incarceration with two legislators (a Republican and a Democrat) in this Journeys Through Justice report.

Journeys Through Justice is a new series of stories and interviews about people caught in North Dakota’s Criminal justice system. A large majority of the people serving time in the state’s prisons and jails are addicted to drugs and or alcohol. Many also suffer from mental health problems. There’s bi-partisan agreement that the cost and the number of people cycling in and out of the system are both way too high.

Leann Bertsch has been North Dakota’s director of Corrections since 2005. In this Journeys Through Justice report, she talks about the changes she feels are needed in the state’s criminal justice system.

We are the third fastest growing state in terms of incarceration, which is not a good statistic to have.

This growth is driven largely by people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol.

At the time, it was a very controversial decision – to build a new prison facility on the grounds of the state hospital in Jamestown.

But retiring state Human Services director Carol Olson says it has worked out well.

Olson says when the James River Correctional Center was proposed, her department sat down with groups like the Mental Health Association, who were concerned about the mixing of the traditional state hospital patients with people sentenced to prison.